Andy Pettitte might not be Drayton McLane's worst mistake as owner of the local baseball team. We could argue that one for hours.

Anyway, Pettitte was back in his hometown Friday afternoon, this time sitting in the wrong dugout, wearing the wrong uniform. To trace the unraveling of the franchise, he would be a good place to start.

That's when Pettitte asked the Astros for a two-year contract instead of the one-year deal that had been discussed for much of the summer of 2006.

McLane refused and invited Pettitte to leave. If he believed the Astros could acquire a better pitcher than Pettitte, he was dumb.

If he allowed his dislike of Pettitte's agents to influence his decision, he was mean-spirited and dumb. Randy and Alan Hendricks were not the ones who were hurt by McLane's pettiness.

He has been wrong plenty of times, but never more wrong than this. He's paying for that mistake to this day.

Pettitte wanted to stay

Pettitte later told several teammates, including
Roy Oswalt
and
Lance Berkman
, that he had hoped to stay with the Astros but that McLane gave him no choice.

Pettitte typically took the high road when asked about all of this Friday afternoon.

"Everything happens for a reason," he said. "The Yankees have been unbelievable to me and wanting me to come back and wanting me to come back extremely bad, and I'm extremely happy to be back in New York. I love it there."

That boneheaded decision led to the Jason Jennings trade, and you pretty much know the rest. The Astros are 18 games under .500 since Pettitte left. They were 40 games over .500 during Pettitte's three seasons.

McLane said he didn't think Pettitte was worth a two-year deal because of the uncertainty of his tender left elbow. Turns out, Jennings was the one with the bum elbow.

McLane also failed to know — or didn't want to know — the stature in which Pettitte was held in the home clubhouse. Berkman has said he never had a better teammate than Pettitte. Others felt the same way.

For the Yankees, the decision to give Pettitte the two-year deal he had sought was easy. He made them better. He gave them a better chance to win. End of discussion.

How the two franchises handled negotiations with Pettitte speaks volumes about how they're operated. To simplify it, the Yankees will do whatever is necessary to win; the Astros will do whatever is necessary to stay in Bud Selig's good graces.

Botching a draft pick

McLane talks the talk about being a champion, but he hasn't walked the walk that often.

If you think this weekend is the first time the Astros and Yankees have had a meaningful competition in Houston, you're wrong. Last June, they drafted a pair of teammates from The Woodlands High School.

Had they moved swiftly, they might have signed him for that amount of money. Instead, they waited. Big mistake.

While they sat on their hands, the Yankees took Eibner's teammate, Taylor Grote, with the 274th pick and agreed to a deal worth $250,000. That price is about three times what Selig's office had slotted for the 274th pick.

The Yankees didn't care. They wanted to get the kid signed and they got him signed. He's part of one of the best minor league systems in baseball.

When Eibner saw what his teammate got, he wanted more money. The Astros refused. Wait, it gets better.

After Eibner enrolled at the University of Arkansas, McLane gave his people the go-ahead to exceed the slot price. By that time, it was too late.

The Astros failed to sign three of their top six picks last year, contributing to what was one of the weakest farm systems in baseball. Such decisions are ridiculously shortsighted.

Compared to the money they're paying, say, Carlos Lee, signing bonuses for draft picks are a drop in the bucket. Those big-ticket free-agent signings are the penalty a franchise must pay for cheap, dumb decisions in scouting and development.

Yankees are about wins

One other point about the way the two franchises are operated. The Astros made a profit of $20.4 million last season, according to Forbes. The Yankees led baseball in losses at $47.3 million.

In other words, the Yankees are about one thing: winning. McLane's philosophy is to cut corners in all the wrong places, then be forced to overpay for a Carlos Lee.

The Yankees don't always spend their millions wisely. For all the good money they throw at draft picks, they've made a string of bad decisions in free agency. Then again, they get it right more often than not. They've made 13 straight postseason appearances. When a player joins the Yankees, he knows he'll have every opportunity to succeed.

If the Yankees begin cutting corners, it won't be on relatively insignificant money for draft choices.

And then there are the Astros, sliding from contention again, with little hope of a quick turnaround.